Germany

A key measure of German investor confidence fell unexpectedly in July in another sign that the eurozone financial crisis is weighing on Europe's largest economy, Bloomberg Businessweek reported on an Associated Press story. The ZEW institute said Tuesday its index fell for the third month in a row to minus 19.6 points from minus 16.9 in June. Market analysts foresaw a small increase to minus 15.0. Germany is the largest economy in the 17-country eurozone and has an outsized impact on the currency union and its efforts to dig out of a crisis over too much government debt.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday she was confident that a majority of German lawmakers would back aid for Spain's ailing banking sector at a special sitting of the lower house Bundestag set for Thursday, Reuters reported. Euro zone finance ministers agreed last Monday on a rescue package of up to 100 billion euros for Spanish banks, which have been crippled by a burst housing bubble.

Shares in Centrotherm plunged on Wednesday after the German solar equipment maker became the latest victim of the industry's ongoing shakeout by filing for protection from creditors, Reuters reported. The industry's crisis, triggered by overcapacity amid falling government subsidies, has hit peers Q-Cells, Solar Millennium, Solarhybrid and Solon, which have all filed for outright insolvency in recent months. "With the help of these proceedings, the company aims to consistently pursue the reorganization path that it has already adopted," Centrotherm said.

Deutsche Annington Immobilien AG, Germany's leading residential property owner, on Tuesday, July 10, unveiled a preliminary agreement to restructure €4.3 billion ($5.27 billion) of debt in a deal that could lead to a public listing in 2013 or 2014, The Deal Pipeline reported. If the deal goes ahead, British buyout firm Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd., which owns the German business through a dedicated fund, will start the ball rolling with an injection of €504 million, roughly half in cash. Terra Firma will deliver the other half by forgiving a shareholder loan.

Germany's regionally-owned lender Bayerische Landesbank, or BayernLB, has reached a long-awaited agreement with the European Commission on the bank's restructuring, the European Union's antitrust chief said Monday, Dow Jones reported. A formal decision on BayernLB's fate is due July 25, E.U. Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said following a meeting with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and Horst Seehofer, premier of the state of Bavaria. Almunia added the final deal will reduce the size of the bank, but will give it strength.

About 160 academics published a petition Thursday calling on German citizens to put pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel to block any further moves toward European integration that would make German taxpayers foot the bill for the debts of other euro-zone countries. The petition specifically hits out at Ms. Merkel's concessions to other euro-zone governments at a summit of European leaders last week. In all-night negotiations, Ms.

Praktiker AG, the struggling German DIY chain, and its major investors struck a compromise late on Wednesday in a last-ditch attempt to stave off bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Fund manager Isabella de Krassny, whose backers held a majority at Praktiker's annual shareholders' meeting on Wednesday, said she was now backing management's restructuring plan after insisting earlier for approval of her own plan. In return, Praktiker bowed to shareholders' demands to replace two supervisory board members with candidates backed by de Krassny.

Germany's parliament ratified the euro zone's permanent bailout fund late Friday, as well as rules that enshrine German-style budget discipline in euro-zone countries and most other European Union members, despite widespread criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel upon her return from a European summit where she made major concessions on support for Spain and Italy, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Germany may be willing to move sooner than expected to accept shared liability of euro-zone debt and would support short-term measures to deal with the acute financing problems facing some of the region's governments, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal ahead of Thursday's European summit. Mr. Schäuble said Germany could agree to some form of debt mutualization as soon as Berlin is satisfied that the path toward establishing centralized European controls is irreversible.

Greece appears headed for a new clash with Germany over its rigid bailout program as the winners of Sunday's Greek election prepare to ask Europe for more time to cut public spending, The Wall Street Journal reported. Greece's conservative New Democracy party and its likely Socialist coalition partner, known as Pasok, are working on a proposal to ask other euro-zone countries for an extra two years to meet Greece's fiscal targets, officials involved in the preparations said.